11

Entertainment or art?
Listening p134
3

Inside an office complex near San Francisco, one of the 10

most powerful computers in the world hums and blinks in
a dark, glass chamber. Known as the Renderfarm, the
computer represents the final stage in a Pixar movie. It takes
the millions of equations that the studios animators have
created to control each character, and crunches them down
into individual frames of film. Pixar are now one of the most
successful film studios in the history of the cinema. But Pixar
employees become visibly disturbed by the suggestion that
sheer computing power might be the secret of, what is to
their rivals, their puzzling success. In Hollywood, though,
trying to figure out Pixars secret has become a matter of
panicky necessity. Since 1995, the company has had an
unbroken record of triumphs as popular with critics as the
box office. This has resulted in not just seven but a staggering
17 Oscars and millions of dollars for the studio. Telling a
story in animated form requires a particularly bizarre kind
of personality an equal mix of childishness and enormous
quantities of patience. Employees admit that it is a tedious
job. They work on something for two years for maybe less than
two minutes of film. If youre not a patient kind of person,
you just cant take it. And obsessive secrecy characterises the
studios attitude to its future releases, so it is impossible for
animators to talk about what they are working on now. What
they can tell you, however, is that it is so difficult to create
animated characters which are realistic that it is pointless
even trying. Computer animations best characters are
strictly symbolic representations. This is probably because
profound emotions are not always best conveyed by
characters who appear to be real creatures.

that younger viewers miss will somehow enhance their

experience of the film. Children live in an adult world and
are used to hearing things they dont understand. So part of
what makes life interesting is trying to figure things out. So
putting things like jokes they dont understand in a movie is
fine. Overall, what is special about Pixar is that their appeal is
universal. And somehow, it seems that they can do no wrong.

Strangely enough, for a company that appears to have

discovered some kind of magic formula, their film The
Incredibles seems to dispense with everything it has done
before. This is because the main characters are all human,
rather than animals or other creatures. The film also lasts for
two full hours and many shots are slow, or completely still.
But what will surprise viewers most of all is not the story
but the message the film sends out. Every Pixar film has a
message and in this film it seems to be that some people are
just better than others and their resentful inferiors should
just accept the fact that this is the way things are. The Pixar
doctrine seems to be that if a story really is good enough, it
will reach everybody, not just children and even the jokes

CAE Result Students Book Oxford University Press

Unit11 1

Speaking p135
2

Ana: Well, these people obviously enjoy going to the

theatre. They probably find a live performance much
more exciting than watching a play on television. On
the other hand, the spectators at the basketball match
must enjoy supporting their team, together with all the
other fans. As for the atmosphere in each case well,
its completely different. At the theatre you must be
quiet as a member of the audience. Everyone is
concentrating on what the actors are doing. But at a
basketball match you can stand up and feel like youre
taking part in the match on the court yourself. Thats
part of the fun!

2 Unit11

CAE Result Students Book Oxford University Press